Nearby Theaters

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Originally opened in 1925 as the Marcal Theatre. Once operated by Pacific Theatres, the World Theatre was closed in the Summer of 1986. It was located at the east end of Hollywood Boulevard and showed second-run features in a triple bill for bargain prices.

“I think they were open 24 hours. Last rememberance of seeing anything there was a triple feature of "Footloose”, “Against All Odds” and “The Big Chill” in the Summer of 1984."

I worked as projectionist at the World in the late 60’s. Besides the triple bills, sometimes Universal would rent the theater for preview screenings, and would send their sound guys out to set up the double system sound machines.

Once we ran Willard and Ben on the same bill, and I persuaded the manager to let me cut the tail and credits out so it played as one continuous movie. Another time we were running Black Beauty, and the last day an audience member pointed out the reels were out of order. I checked the leaders and indeed they had been mismarked and we had run it that way all week.

Why…what? The facade was removed after the 94 earthquake. It had already been severely modified by that time so it was no great loss. If you mean why is it across the street from Toyota, I can only guess because the theater was there before Toyota. The only indication of it ever being a theater is the low profile of the auditorium part of the building. It seems to sink into the ground. This was done to allow for the rake. With the stage house also gone, there is nothing left of its theatrical beginnings. By the way, The Museum of Death is next door. That should help narrow it down.

Three photos of the lobby of the Marcal Theatre can be seen on this page from the USC Digital Archive (click the thumbnails of the two additional photos in the right column of the page.) The photos were taken by the Dick Whittington Studio in 1932.